Rail-bond.



'the connection as permanent UNITED STATES PATENT GEORGE A. MEAD, OF MANSFIEJD, OHIO, ASSIGNOB, T0 THE QHIOBBASBLUDMPEKNT, 0l'

MANSFIELD, OHIO, .A CORPORATION 0F NEW JERSEY. y

BAIL-BOND.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Original application tiled June Si, 1816, Serial No. 101,419. l Divided and this application led October 2, l

1916. Serial No. 123,245.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. MEAD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Mansfield, in the county of Richland, and diste of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail-Bonds, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates torail bonds and is a division of my application for railbonds and the method of manufacturing, filed one 2. 1916, Serial No. 101,419.

Dnc object of the invention is to provide a houd which can be1Welded to a rail, therb forming an integral union with the rail and giving a high degree of elliciency, both electrically and mechanically.

Another obj eet of the invention is to produce a bond which can be so welded tothe rail as to make use of the oxy-acetylene or a flame of similar nature, or of the electric are, as the source of heat. Another object of the invention is to roduce a rail bond in which the strength o the union between the welding metal and the bond terminal will be greater for a given arcs of contact than the strength between the weldin metal and copper, which is the usual meta from which rail bond terminals e censtmcted. A

The invention consists in the novel construction.` combinatlon and arrangement of parts.. Y y

In the accompanying drawing. Fi re 1 is e side elevation showing a, bon constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention applied to the adjacent ends of two rails; Fig. 2 is a section taken on line 2--2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 isa top plan view of the bond before ap lied to the rail, and Fig. 4 is asection of t e bond taken on line 4--4 of Fig. 3. y

In bonding or electrically connecting'the adjacent ends of rails it is desirable to make and ellicient electrically as possible. One of the objections found to most of the bonds-,now used is that they are held to th., rail by bolts, rivets, expanding pins, etc., and in time become loose endlose their elliciency as a current conductor between rails, which would not be the case if they were welded to the rail, thereby forming an integral union and a connection of high and permanent elliciency.

weldingbonds to rails is the Apxy-a tiene flame which gives a very (Intense concem trated heat of about 6,000` egrees F. The

electric arc produces about the same results. The effect is to rapidly heat the krail surface and bond terminal surface to the melting point, at which time metal is-ap lied'in the form of a small rod or wire,'to. e place off alpplication of heat which will at `once melt t rod and the molten @etal willunite and alloy with the molten metalon the surface of .the bond terminal and therailformng an integral union. y 4

T e molten metal can be caused toliw i'n almost any direction by properly directing the force of the flame, as the llame reduces ,a drivingeect. This is illustrate in Fig.

2 where the weldingxmetal is indicated by numeral 9 and is shown as forming a slo ing face. which is produced byr properly 1- r'ecting the flame against the welded metal while in a .iolten condition; y

Bondshaving cop .er terminals and applied as just describe do not have as strong. a mechanical union between the. welding metal and the terminal as they do wherethe bond terminal is made "of some othermetal, such for instance as a ferrous metal, .such as steel or iron, an alloy in which iron pre.- dominates, or a nickel alloy such `as `Monel meta With these points in viewthe bondlof this invention is devised which can be weldedto the rail by economical means thereby forme ing an'integral connection and theconstruction is such that the bestmeehanical. con/-- nection is made between the various arte.`

A bond body 1 of iiat copper rib on or stranded copper cable is first rormed Sup, or M in some cases the body may be made -of`1ron or steel, or nickel alloy. Usiliggaglannated y or stranded body givesigreaterg lixibilityl over that of avsolid bod and 'requires that are made of iron, steel, an allo. in .which iron predominates, or a nickel oy and. are

not the ends be tightly hel The. terminals 2f produced either by dro forging or casting, consisting in the pre erred form, of two parts; a shelf 4 and a sleeve 5. The shelf is a flat surface on which to build up the welded metal 9; the sleeve 5 which is detachablv connected to the shelf 4 is .ms cessed throughout its len th and the passage is slightly larger than t e cross section of the bond body 1, one end of which is inserted into the sleevei's"clearlyy shown in Fig. 4.

In using a copper bo y 1 and ferrous or nickel alloy terminal, the union between the copper bod and the Welded metal is not as strong mec ianically as thennion between the shelf 4 and the weldin metal 9. Therefore it is desirable to tig itly compress the sleeve on to the body making a strong mechanical union between the body and the terminal preventing the joints between the body and the welding metal 9 tearing loose.

To facilitate the application of the welding flame into the corner formed by the rail and bond terminal, the terminal is spaced a slight distance from the rail by )lacing feet or projections 10 on one side o the terminals forming the reduced portion 11 between them. This is the side applied to the rail and as the reduced ortion 11 forms a slot betwn the termina and the rail it prevents a reflection of the flame from the extreme corner by allowing its escape through the slot formed thereby. l i

The relative location of the shelf 4 and the sleeve 5 may be changed to suit ret uireinents, also the shape of the arts sin even the method of attaching the ody 1 to the termi nal. The shelf may be at one end of the sleeve or it ma y be intermediate the ends, and it is found advantageous to allow the end of the body l, as designated by the numeral S, to extend beyond the face or end of the opening through the sleeve 5, for b doing this the welding metal 9 and the en of the body 1 are roperly united, although it is not absolute y necessary that the end of the bond protrudes.

The best location for the bond is oriV the side of the body of the rail, as shown by Figs. 1 and 2, but by modifying the shape it can be applied -to other locations on the rail, as for exam le, on the web or base. When applied to t e ball of the rail the welding metal is applied to produce a bevel or sloping face with the outer surface of the welding metal slo ing upward and toward the rail surface, t ereby presenting less chance for the bond to be torn oif by wagon wheels or horses hoofs at street croings, or by double-flanged wheels, or other causes at points along the track.

In this construction it should be understood that the 'sleeve 5 is compressed or otherwise attached to the body and the shelf 5 sli ped over the end of the sleeve and held firm y in place by the welding metal. In

incassa some cases it may be found that the shelf 4 is not necessary, and the bond may be attached direetl to the rail through the sleeve and the we ding me-tal. Copper, phosphor copper or some of the bronzes give the best reas welding metal and have high electri l conductivity.

It is a parent to one skilled in the art that the bon as described above and its application, possesses the advantages of a copper body connectin the two rails, and it is welded to the rail by metal of equal conductivity, or practically the same conductivity when copper or bronze welding metal is used, and hence the electrical resistance from rail to rail is low; as the bond terminal is of iron, steelor similar material, the mechanical union between the welding metal and the terminal is very strong; the union between the welding metal and the rail surface is similar to that of the terminal; and since the body of the bond isgattached securely to the terminal as well as to the weldin metal, the bond as a whole possesses lii h e ciency both electrically and mechanical y when applied to the rail as described.

I claim 1. A rail bond adapted to be Welded to a rail consisting of a body and terminals of dissimilar metals, the terminals comprising a sleeve and a shelf member detachably connected to the sleeve and extendin in a plane transverse thereto, the sleeve being compressed on-to the body and the cxtreme end of `the bod being exposed.

2. A rai bond for attachment to a rail by welding consisting of a body and terminals of dissimilar metals, the terminals comprising a sleeve and a shelf member detachably connected together and extending at right angles to each other and 'the sleeve being tightly compressed on the body.

3. A rail bond to be welded to a rail consisting of a body and terminals, the terminais made of iron and eomprisin a sleeve and a transversely extending she member detachably connected together and the sleeve attached to the body. i

4. A rail bond for welding attachment to a rail consisting of a body and terminals of dissimilar metals and united together, the terminals comprising a sleeve and shelf member detachably connected, the shelf extendin in a plane other than parallel'to the axis o the sleeve.

5. A rail bond adapted to be attached to a rail by Weldin consisting of a body having its ends eneirc ed by sleeves and the sleeves provided with detachable shelves which extend in a plane other than parallel to the sleeves and' body.

6. A rail bond adapted to be attached ton rail by welding metal and consisting of a body having its ends encircled by sleeves which are tightly compressed onto the body and weErovided with transversely extending det able shelves.

7. A rail bond for attachment b Welding metal to a rail, consisting of a bo( y having the ends encircled by sleeves of a dissimilar metal, the sleeves provided with detachable shelves which extend in a plane transverse to the axis of the sleeves.

8. Av rail bond adapted to be attached by Welding metal to a rail, consisting of a body having the ends encircled by sleeves of a ferreus metal and provided with a detachably connected shelf member extending transversey thereof.

9. rail bond consisting of a body and terminals of diimilar metals, the terminals comprising a sleeve and a shelf member detachably connected to the sleeve and extending in a plane other than parallel to the sleeve, the terminals being attached to the bod b compression and the extreme end of the y extendi beyond the sleeve.4

10. A rail bon consisting of a body and terminals, the terminals made of iron and comprising' a sleeve and a transversely extending shelf member detachably connected together and the terminals attached to the body, the end of the body extending beyond the terminal.

l1. A rail bond consisting of a body having the ends encircled by sleeves of a ferrous metal with the ends extending beyond the sleeves, and a detachably `connected shelf member which extends in a plane other than parallel to the axis of the sleeve or of the I have signed my on this 21st day-of 

